Third year undergraduate students from IADT and NCAD participated as equal collaborators in this cross-institutional initiative, building professional networks and transdisciplinary competencies essential for sustainable creative careers. The module’s emphasis on connection to land, community, water, and heritage through walking practice develops professional skills in community engagement, environmental stewardship, and place-based creative methodologies. Students actively led their environmental documentation processes whilst collaborating across disciplines, modelling the collaborative approaches increasingly valued in sustainable creative industries. External partnerships with local heritage sites and natural environments provide authentic contexts for professional development, whilst the peer-to-peer learning structure mirrors the collaborative networks that characterise successful sustainable creative practices and emerging green creative economies.

As a module within the CFA at IADT’s elective framework this module worked within the generic learning outcomes for the module which are:

1. Acquire and apply a novel professional skillset to a foundational level of proficiency.
2. Conduct a skills audit to critically assess specialised and transferable skills against industry requirements.
3. Develop a strategic plan to integrate new skillsets for the enhancement of their professional practice.
4. Design and present a self-directed project that demonstrates the successful application or integration of a new skillset.

The module employs structured walking as the primary pedagogical method, with each session combining embodied site experience, preparatory readings, and reflective discussion. From its conception, the module was designed with ESD as a core priority, ensuring students had meaningful opportunities to engage with their local but often unknown natural and cultural environments. This approach was grounded in a view of active and situated pedagogy that recognises that learning happens most effectively when students form personal, embodied connections to place and heritage. Students engage in sensory mapping exercises supported by contextual materials on psychogeography, maritime history, and creative research methodologies. The approach emphasises process, encouraging experimentation and documentation through diverse media. Tutors facilitate pre-walk briefings and post-walk reflections, helping students connect local observations to broader creative practice contexts. This experiential methodology develops students’ professional competencies in site-responsive research, community engagement, and reflective practice whilst building their capacity for self-directed creative inquiry.

Assessment centres on two interconnected elements: a reflective notebook documenting the student’s creative research process, and a final presentation contextualising their learning within their broader creative practice. The notebook captures ongoing processes of site engagement, sensory observation, and creative experimentation, with students self-directing format and content to include sketches, photographs, collected materials, written reflections, and conceptual mappings. The final presentation requires students to articulate how their walking-based research might inform future creative projects, demonstrating their ability to integrate new methodologies into existing practice. This assessment approach supports the module’s focus on professional development, evaluating students’ capacity to expand their creative toolkit whilst reflecting critically on their learning process.

Students reported expanded understanding of creative research methodologies and enhanced capacity for environmental observation and heritage interpretation. Interviews revealed lasting changes in their creative practice, incorporating walking-based and site-specific methodologies into ongoing projects. The cross-institutional model fostered meaningful collaborations, with participants maintaining professional connections beyond module completion. Students developed practical skills in working with heritage sites and environmental contexts, building competencies valued by cultural organisations and community partners. Faculty gained valuable experience in place-based pedagogy and cross-institutional collaboration. Working with colleagues across institutional departments (Art/Design/Psychology) led to an IADT team invitation (in partnership with DLR) to co-author a Creative Europe funding proposal on environmental literacy, well-being, and walking as creative practice with six EU HEIs, demonstrating the module’s potential for scaling innovative creative education approaches whilst contributing to sustainable cultural practice.

• Use local environments as primary learning spaces: Structure learning around accessible coastal and heritage sites, developing students’ capacity for site-responsive creative practice. This approach makes abstract research concepts tangible whilst building professional skills in environmental and heritage interpretation that are increasingly relevant in contemporary creative work.
• Emphasise process documentation over finished outcomes: Design assessment strategies that value ongoing reflection and creative experimentation through notebook formats that each student controls. This supports diverse learning styles whilst building professional competencies in research documentation essential for grant applications, residencies, and collaborative projects.
• Foster genuine cross-institutional collaboration: Create opportunities for students from different institutions to work together as equals, building the professional networks and collaborative skills essential for sustainable creative careers whilst breaking down institutional barriers that can limit creative opportunities.

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